LEFT( ) Function

  • Article

Returns a specified number of characters from a character expression, starting with the leftmost character.

LEFT(cExpression, nExpression)

Parameters

  • cExpression
    Specifies the character expression that LEFT( ) returns characters from.

  • nExpression
    Specifies the number of characters returned from the character expression. If nExpression is greater than the length of cExpression, all of the character expression is returned. If nExpression is negative or 0, LEFT( ) returns an empty string.

    LEFT( ) uses a starting position of 1 and is identical to SUBSTR( ).

Return Value

Character. LEFT( ) returns a character string.

Example

The following example uses two different ways to display the string result from the LEFT( ) function, which returns the first four letters in the string, "Redmond, WA":

? LEFT('Redmond, WA', 4)          && Displays the string, Redm.
myString = LEFT('Redmond, WA', 4) && Stores result in myString.
? myString                        && Displays result in myString.

For more information, see ? | ?? Command.

See Also

Reference

AT( ) Function
AT_C( ) Function
ATC( ) Function
ATCC( ) Function
ATCLINE( ) Function
ATLINE( ) Function
LTRIM( ) Function
RAT( ) Function
RATLINE( ) Function
RIGHT( ) Function
RTRIM( ) Function
SUBSTR( ) Function
LEFTC( ) Function
RIGHTC( ) Function
SUBSTRC( ) Function

Other Resources

Functions